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So who would have thunk it?

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) is now to the right of Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) on the question of allowing public sector workers to unionize.

"My belief is as long as people know what they're doing, collective bargaining is fine," Scott said in an interview with Tallahassee's WFLA FM radio station.

Scott claimed that Walker has no choice but to pare back worker benefits because deficits are projected to be large and tax hikes are off the table.

"No one's voting for a tax increase," Scott said.

But as long as state workers are agreeing to pony up, Scott says the workers should be allowed to organize. Walker's drawn a bright line on that issue. Which is saying something -- the tea party favorite Scott is definitely no RINO.

Well, he does have a reason to leave collective bargaining alone as Digby explains:

This is a fight against working people, and although they are more than happy to rail against them if that's the sanctioned Tea Party view, their leaders may be deciding that's not going to help them get elected.
This isn't about fighting the "San Francisco liberals" or the Hollywood Elite. These are their Real Americans. The politicians seem cognizant of that fact anyway.

Update: I think this may explain it:

The poll found that 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law. Ohio and several other states that have new Republican governors and legislative majorities are considering laws that would reduce the power of government employee unions to bargain over benefits and work rules. Wisconsin is the first state to consider the limits, prompting protests that have closed schools and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol in Madison.

See, Americans want unions to have the right to bargain collectively. I guess Rick Scott knows how to read polling data even if he can't remember anything about the Medicare fraud his company was found guilty of.

Two whistleblowers say the new front-runner in the Republican race for governor is lying when he says he did not know about fraud in his former company, the Columbia/HCA hospital chain.

In July 1997, FBI agents raided Columbia/HCA accounting offices in seven states, including Florida. Within days, Columbia’s board of directors ousted Scott, but gave him a nearly $10 million severance package, including stock shares worth $300 million and a $1 million a year consulting contract.

The company wound up paying more than $1.7 billion for defrauding the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. Scott says he didn’t know about his company’s fraudulent billing practices and if he had, he’d have fired those responsible. But company whistleblower John Schilling of Naples says Scott must be lying.

“He’s pulling the wool over your eyes if he says that he wasn’t aware of this and he would have fired anybody if he would have been aware of it. I think it’s a bunch of malarkey,” Schilling said.

After Scott refused to accept massive funds for the high speed rail project from the Feds which has upset his own base, I wonder how they'll feel about this?